Pursuing Christian Holiness

Hallowing God's name leads to experiencing His holiness in daily living. For followers of Christ a holy life is the greatest of all human privileges and goals. However, many still find reasons for avoiding the biblical pursuit of Christian holiness.

Generally speaking, the very idea of a holy living seems outdated, something reserved for the elites of the faith. For most Christians it's an outdated religious ideal of an impossible life of perfection. For many it's a legalistic quagmire which is not relevant for today. Others see a holy life as a sign of someone just wanting to be better in appearance than they really are.  

Isn't holiness for religious professionals, the prerogative of affluent people who have the time and resources to focus on the "nice" things of life? Haven't you seen those disgraced ministers and religious leaders on the news? Aren't we just asking for trouble when we claim to be like Jesus? Besides, who wants to become a marginalized prude?

So go the questions on and on. But the call of the Lord's Prayer also goes on and on. (Matthew 6:9-13) Christ calls us to resist the usual pursuit of holiness questions and just determine in our hearts to reverence God's name. And in the process, we will be hallowed by God. The seductions and failures will continue to come, of course, but so will the transforming grace of God.

The Bible challenges us and warns us: "Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the LORD" (Hebrews 12:14). The Word of God is saying that as we hallow His name, we come to realize that it's His holiness which enables our fulfillment in life. As we hallow God's name, He confronts everything that is destructive within us. Our declaring His name "hallowed" is the very holiness God desires and makes possible for us.  

And what keeps us from hallowing God's name? Sin. Sin insists on doing things my way for and by myself apart from God and others in defiance of God, even if it leads to my own destruction. We're created to live in loving relationship with God. But to honor the "I" of myself instead of honoring the holy God of the Bible destroys one's very life and entire future. 

To pray and live the Lord's Prayer, hallowing God's name, is the total opposite of such an individualistic, selfish rebuke thrown in God's face. The life of holiness is the great reversal of all that is destructive in life. It's the ultimate medicine for the sickness of sin.  

Being made new in God's image is the only way to become the individuals God created us to be. The pursuit of Christian holiness begins and ends with hallowing God's holy name. 

Engaging the LGBTQ Conversation

 

God is love. We who walk with this loving God seek to love Him and others in humble obedience to His holy Word. Though it may seem at times like we're up against a brick wall, God's love compels us to engage the LGBTQ conversation with humility and love, realizing our own broken conditions as we pursue a biblical understanding of God's intention for us all. While thankful for our true identity in Christ, we realize our deficiencies and pray that God will be seen and glorified through us.   

As part of God's holy church, we continually strive to engage the challenging issues of culture with godly compassion. We draw upon our biblical heritage in embracing societal issues and welcome every opportunity to engage the LGBTQ conversation. Since we suffer the effects of living in a sinful world, we confess that we haven't always done this very well. Motives other than God's love have sometimes dimmed our intentions and blurred our heartfelt desire to reflect God's will.

While there are many starting points in this conversation, we underscore here the central theme of restoration. Based on God's holy Word we emphasize His desire for wholeness, the image of God in us, the nature of sin and salvation, and the power of God's grace that helps us in our daily living. Our goal is to proceed in this conversation from a framework consistent with who we are becoming by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

We emphasize our desire to engage in the LGBTQ conversation. We're not trying to answer all the questions. We encourage those who would join in this conversation to integrate this framework into their particular situations with the loving grace that is consistent with God's holy church and the biblical imperative to love God and others. We will not take a sectarian stand to demean anyone, for we're all created by God and are bearers of His holy image.

Bearing the image of God is unique to human beings. Humanity was originally created to reflect God's image perfectly and clearly, abiding in close relationship and intimacy with God. Having been given the freedom to choose, we chose ourselves over God. The result of our selfish choice was broken relationship and intimacy with God and others. In this separated state, the image of God became broken within us and in relation to others. 

But God's love is not willing that any of us should remain eternally broken and separated from Him. Love compels God to take the initiative in reconciling us back into relationship with Him and one another. This has ultimately happened through the life, death and resurrection of God's only Son, Jesus Christ. By grace through faith in Christ, God is redeeming the world and providing the only way for the image of God to be restored in us. And as the image of God is restored in us, we are being healed of our brokenness and becoming whole in Christ.

All brokenness in life results from the separation that exists between God and us. It is seen in different dimensions of body, mind and spirit which are being kept from integrating into our lives as a whole. It is also seen when one area of our life is out of step with the whole. This warped image of God in us represents disconnectedness among the various aspects of who we are physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, psychologically and spiritually. We fall short of God's intention of complete integration and wholeness in our lives. In light of this, we believe same sex attraction, bisexual or transgender identity represent an incongruity among the component parts of how God has made us. Such an inharmonious existence is the result of separation from God as is any existence that falls short of the wholeness God intends for us.

What God intends for all human beings is a completely restored wholeness, reflecting the wholeness of God. Since God's holy will cannot be realized when we are separated from Him, each of us live under the effects of sin. In that condition, we tend to make choices that reinforce, defend or justify ourselves. People with a gender identity that is not the same as their physicality, whether by personal choice or psychological factors, reflect this condition of a disintegrated whole. Those who act on physical attractions to same sex persons as an expression of their sexuality also reflect the condition of all human beings which is being out of sync as a result of not reflecting the integrated wholeness of God. In the same way those who give in to addictions of any kind, whether it be adultery, gossip or overindulgence, are living with the effects of brokenness because of separation from God. They too exemplify lives that have fallen short of truly reflecting God's own image. 

We all are sinful people, living under the effects of broken relationship with God to one degree or another. Every sin is an act of rebellion against a holy God. We're all born into sin and will choose whether or not we accept the truth of God's way back into a reconciled relationship with Him. The only way of salvation from sin, for coming back to God, is through one Person, Jesus Christ. 

Prompted by grace, our salvation from sin requires each of us to individually and willingly: acknowledge our sinful condition (confession); desire to be made whole again (repentance); rely on the work of Christ for salvation (justification); and surrender daily to the graceful influence of God's love transforming our nature through the work of the Holy Spirit (sanctification). Everyone will choose whether or not to walk this path. Whatever our beginning condition may be (stubborn independence, addiction, greedy self-consumption, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender behavior), we all fall under the effects of sin and need a biblical path to restore us to the wholeness of life that only God offers us. 

We believe that presuming upon God to redefine His path for us is selfishness. Saying that our sinful condition should be acceptable to God just as we are, and that God's intention and desire for us should include our current broken condition, removes the need for grace and takes away our responsibility to seek healing from our misrepresentations of God's image. Revising God's biblical intention for us is another form of self-justification that replaces pursuing God's holy will which is restoring His broken image in us. We know God is forgiving, merciful, and most of all loving. God is so loving that He has made a way by grace through faith in Christ for us to be fully restored in God's image. 

It's by grace alone that we're enabled to properly manage the influence of our fallen condition through daily choices that guide our behavior. Grace is God's love in action! Grace is the help that comes to us from the very presence of God, which meets us just as we are in our sinful condition and guides us to make life changes to become more like Jesus, bringing glory and honor to God. When we resist grace, we're saying "no" to God's help and His desire to work with us, deciding instead to remain in our sinful condition and live by our own definition of wholeness. 

When we receive grace, we accept the reality of our sinful condition. It means we rely upon grace as compensation for our inadequacy as long as we live under the effect of sin. It means recognizing that apart from the presence of God we remain a broken image of God's intention for us. Accepting grace means acknowledging that our humble surrendering to God's influence upon us is the only way to wholeness wherein the various parts of our being will again come into integrity with one another. Accepting grace is living with the assurance of fulfillment in life that is not the result of redefining our wholeness but the result of the compensatory nature of God's loving grace. 

Some may dispute our understanding of God's intention for us as a binary gendered interpretation. Some say it should be expanded to include other combinations of gender identity and sexual expression that are not necessarily hetero nor singularly gendered. This is the crux of the question which we appeal to the biblical passages and scriptural principles, knowing some will dispute our interpretation and come to different conclusions. To inform our interpretation and understanding of Scripture, we also appeal for guidance to our historic identity as part of God's holy church. We apply Spirit-led reasoning to the scriptural principles and appeal to the heritage of countless churches and believers that have gone before us and left a long-standing pattern for engaging difficult issues. 

We stand for the truth as it is in Jesus. We know that sin has affected us all without exception. We humbly accept our broken condition. Though not all sins are created equal, every sin is an act of rebellion against a holy God. Therefore, we all are in need of the ever-present loving grace of our forgiving God. We acknowledge God's desire to restore the image of God in every single human being. We are fully committed to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The grace of God is sufficient for all our need. We depend on the Holy Spirit to supply our every need. Our quest is for God to restore us to wholeness in Christ, daily becoming more like our Lord Jesus.

To be like Jesus, the church as biblically revealed must reach out in love to all broken and sinful people. We encourage everyone to become fully restored in Christ and claim their place as a part of the family of God. Is a gay, bisexual, or transgendered man welcomed to join the church in the worship God? Yes! Will the church affirm his sexual behavior? No! Will the church encourage a lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered woman to seek God's will for her entire life, including her sexuality? Yes! Will the church condemn either the man or woman and single them out in their sins? No! Will the church call a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered man or woman to repentance and experience God's forgiveness and restoration in their lives? Yes! Will the church elect her or him to church office, if s/he continues to practice broken sexual behavior? No! Will they be free to bring their lovers to worship with them? Yes! Will they be free to be physically expressive at church, as a husband and wife would be in a public setting? No! Will the church pray for them and seek to love them as Christ loves us? Yes! Will the church bless their union by providing or acknowledging a civil or marriage ceremony? No!  These questions and responses also apply to any who willfully practice behaviors which come from broken conditions of all kinds, whatever may turn our hearts away from God's intention for all of us to faithfully represent the image of God in our lives.

What is it, then, that we celebrate and encourage? We celebrate and encourage the humble acceptance and appropriation of God's grace by everyone, so that God's image may be fully restored in them. We know and accept that there will be times of failure and stumbling on the path to wholeness in Christ. However, we continue to celebrate God's intention for us all to fully reflect His holy nature in us. We call for the working out of our salvation until we finally come to live eternally with God. Mostly we celebrate the loving grace of God, which sustains us all until that day and makes it possible for us to live as whole people today. 

We stand on the authority and truth of God's Word, and seek to welcome all lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people who humbly seek the sufficiency of Christ for their broken conditions. We encourage all Christian leaders to reflect God's loving grace in engaging the uniqueness of the particular situations they encounter, seeking to help all people to find holy relationship and intimacy with God. This is the biblically revealed intention of God for all people: men, women, boys and girls who are of one particular gender and are integrated within their own lives, living in unbroken conditions of restored life which bear God's image faithfully and seek daily to become more like Christ. 

Christian Inclusion in the Church

 

Most everyone in the church has an interest, or has been involved in, the homosexuality debate. The term heard most often is "inclusiveness," used mostly by the pro-homosexual advocates and the gay Chrisitan movement. They say that since Jesus loves us unconditionally, those who would truly follow Him will not allow exclusions in the church. True Christianity, they say, is a religion of inclusion, so inclusiveness must be a primary virtue of the church. 

Any proper discussion of Christian sexual ethics in the church must be founded upon biblical orthodoxy. Whether we in the church believe homosexual behavior is right or wrong, we must not be unloving nor judgmental when dealing with the issues. We are bound by Scripture to love as Jesus loved, offering grace and mercy to all people, including gays and lesbians. 

There are certain questions that must be addressed to have a true and adequate understanding of Christian inclusion in the church. Was Jesus inclusive and, if so, in what sense?  What does it mean, and what doesn't it mean, for the church to be inclusive? Is inclusiveness the real meaning of Christianity? Does God's love include absolute inclusiveness? How should we, as members of God's church, be inclusive today as we continue to deal with the issue of homosexuality in the church?

At the root of the crisis in the church is theological disagreement over biblical authority and interpretation, especially with respect to fitness for church leadership.  Some say the church should exclude from leadership those with questionable sexual ethics, and others argue that the church must be inclusive of all people in its leadership, especially gays and lesbians, because this follows Jesus' example. But is this an accurate description of Jesus' religion? Do we find inclusiveness, even absolute inclusiveness, in Jesus' teaching and example?

Jesus lived in a religious and cultural environment where exclusion was common. First century Jews emphasized the exclusion of Gentiles from God's blessings. Exclusion of non-Jews was associated with true piety. The Pharisees looked down on the common Jew as unspiritual, and the Essenes only accepted males who practiced certain rites of purity. In contrast we see that Jesus mixed with social and religious outcasts, such as tax collectors and sinners. He included among His followers those who were excluded by the Jewish religious leaders. Why did Jesus associate with the outcasts and include them among His followers? Because His mission was to seek and save all people and draw them to God, especially those which the Pharisees and religious elite ignored and excluded from their groups. 

Jesus broke with the conventional social and religious practices of the time. For example, He not only healed lepers, but also touched them in the process. Lepers were cursed with a terrible disease and exclusion from society. Jesus touched them, not only to heal them but to indicate the beginning of their inclusion within society. He told them to show themselves to the priests. Why? Because only the priest had authority to pronounce them ceremonially clean so they could once again participate in social and religious activities. Jesus' concern was not only for their physical healing, but for their social healing and return to human community. 

The temptation here is to conclude that Jesus' inclusiveness extended to all people, even lepers. But Jesus didn't include them among His followers as lepers. Rather, He healed them that they might be fully whole and restored to fellowship. To say Jesus' followers included lepers misses the point. After Jesus healed them, they weren't lepers anymore. Jesus didn't include lepers, but former lepers. From this we see that Jesus' inclusiveness wasn't of the "come as you are and stay as you are" variety. It was more like "come as you are, be healed and transformed, then stay as a whole person." 

Also contrary to the male-dominated Jewish religion and culture, Jesus interacted with and had fellowship with women, even those with bad reputations. Though Jesus had a core group of male disciples, He also had women as some of His closest followers. Many of the women had been delivered from evil spirits and cured of physical infirmities. Jesus first healed them and freed them, then as free and whole individuals they were included in the fellowship of His followers. 

Once Jewish leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. They reminded Jesus that according to the biblical law, she (and her lover) should be stoned to death. After Jesus confronted them with their own sins, they all left her alone with Him. He sent her on her way without condemnation but warned her not to sin again. Jesus extended forgiveness to the woman, but didn't bless her adultery, nor did He release her to return to her lover.  Rather, as He forgave her, He also told her not to commit adultery anymore. Jesus accepted the woman as a child of God who was worthy of forgiveness, but He didn't accept her sinful activity. The grace of God which Jesus offered Her was meant to lead her into a new life of holiness and fellowship with God and His people. 

Sometimes advocates of "inclusiveness" in the church seem to interpret Jesus' actions as implying the acceptance of behavior contrary to God's biblically revealed will. The need for all of us is to sort out the difference between reaching out in love to all people, no matter their state or condition, and including people in the fellowship of the church when they wish to persist in their sinful behaviors. Inclusiveness cannot be separated from the promise of wholeness for the sinner and the priority of holiness for the Christian.

Jesus was also exclusive. We would be hard pressed to say that Jesus' inclusiveness extended to the majority of the Jewish religious leaders of His time. He rather excluded them (or noted that they excluded themselves) from the kingdom of God. They could still be included in the kingdom of God, but only if they repented of their sins and were born of God's Spirit. The New Testament Gospels also show that Jesus was less than inclusive of Gentiles. Why? Because His earthly ministry was focused on the Jews. Only later did He instruct His followers to carry His good news throughout the world. 

On occasions some sought to follow Jesus with stipulations. One asked permission to first bury the dead. Another wanted to first say "goodbye" to relatives. In both incidents Jesus rejected their requests. The kingdom of God had to be the top priority for the seekers' lives. Once again, this is not a "come as you are and stay as you are" kind of inclusiveness. Not all who want to enter into God's kingdom find the only way, which is through saving faith in Christ. 

Jesus says we are to do away with anything we love more than the kingdom of God. He is certainly more exclusive than inclusive here. Jesus will not accept us as we are if our hearts are sold out to anything before Him. To do so would not be a loving action. How different from the cultural notions of today! Excluding anybody for any reason is said by many well-meaning Christians to be unloving. Yet, Jesus knew there were more important things than being included, things like having a pure heart and putting the kingdom of God first in one's life. If Jesus is our model for life, then we must admit that it's unloving to accept people as they are with their sinful hearts, without calling them to repent. Unconditional inclusiveness is both unloving and contrary to Jesus' example. 

Jesus encourages people to believe in God and also in Him. He claims to be "the way, the truth and the life." According to Jesus, there are not many ways to God, because no one can come to our heavenly Father except through Him. This is the exclusiveness of Jesus in its most blunt and extreme form. The kingdom of God is available to everyone, but only through Jesus Himself. Jesus doesn't send His disciples into the world with the message that all people are a part of God's kingdom, no matter their response to Him. No! Jesus sends His disciples into the world with the message that the kingdom of God is open to all, but only on His terms. Only by saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ, can one enter the kingdom of God. 

The exclusive claims of Jesus are hard to accept in our "anything goes," relativistic culture. Because Jesus' exclusiveness doesn't fit our cultural assumptions, many Christians have downplayed or rejected His exclusiveness and have tried instead to refashion His inclusiveness to fit the culture. Those who do so would be well served to refresh their knowledge of Jesus' inclusiveness, as revealed in the biblical record, rather than their culturally molded perceptions. 

So, Jesus was both inclusive and exclusive. He included in His fellowship those who were repentant sinners, including tax collectors, lepers, women, and children. He excluded from His fellowship the prideful religious leaders and others who refused to receive the kingdom of God like a little child. Though He lovingly accepted those who were broken and sinful, he did not allow them to remain in their broken condition. Rather, He called them to return to God and fully surrender to Him by grace through faith in His Word. When they did, then they entered into His community, the church, and began the lifelong journey toward full restoration and wholeness by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

In the early church the inclusiveness of Jesus was easier said than done. The Apostles called the church to unity. The church included those who had no social status, wealth, nor education. That was good. The church also had those who overvalued their own importance, even to the point of excluding those who lacked spiritual experience, wealth, or status. That was not good. They were missing the point that inclusion in the church was the work of the Holy Spirit. Inclusion into the church was the result of one's repentance of their sins, confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord, and being baptized into the body of Christ - all the work of the Holy Spirit. And continued inclusion in the church was dependent upon living in a way that was consistent with God's standards for Christian disciples. 

There was concern for Christian inclusiveness by leaders of the early church. At times the church was counseled to exclude a member of their community, but instead would turn their eyes the other way. Instead, the church should have removed the member from their congregation with the hope that the member would repent and be saved. Exclusion wasn't merely punishment; it was discipline for restoring those who had fallen out of God's will for their lives. 

So, from the biblical record of experiences in the early church we learn that Christians are to reach out to all people, excluding none from their evangelistic efforts. The church is not to exclude those from our church who lack worldly status, wealth, education, or certain spiritual experiences. The church must strive to include all individuals in the body of Christ, especially those who are different from us. At the same time, the church is not to tolerate persistent sin in those who are unrepentant. Such individuals are to be excluded from the fellowship of the church with the hope that such exclusion will be redemptive in their lives. In particular, Christians are not to associate with believers who persist in sexual immorality. 

This might be confusing to some, especially those who believe that absolute inclusiveness is essential in the church. On the other hand, some believe it would be better to simply avoid all contact with sinners or, conversely, to accept all people no matter their behavior. Yet, according to the biblical record, we are to reach out to all, no matter their sinful condition. At the same time, if someone in the church continues to sin and will not repent, the church is to exclude that member from the church in the hope that the individual will repent and become, once again, a member of the church community.

The biblical record is clear, Jesus and the early church were and were not inclusive. In some ways Jesus and His disciples were radically inclusive, while in other ways they were surprisingly exclusive. Those who argue from the inclusiveness of Jesus to include practicing gays and lesbians in the fellowship of the church today, even as leaders, assume that practicing gays and lesbians are not engaging in sinful behavior from which they must repent to enter the kingdom of God. If this assumption turns out to be wrong, their argument for inclusion falls apart. To be faithful to Jesus and the Scripture, the church cannot simply assume that homosexual activity under any circumstance is right. Rather, the church needs to look at what the Bible actually says about homosexual behavior in the light of the broader biblical teaching on human sexuality.

For Christians who believe the Bible is God's Word, there are reasonable conclusions about the biblical teaching on homosexuality. Whenever the Bible speaks positively about human sexuality, it's always in the context of male and female sexuality. God created sex to be shared only between a man and a woman. The Bible always speaks of same sex behavior negatively. There are no pro-homosexual biblical texts. There is no compelling argument from the Scriptures for the rightness of any homosexual practice. Homosexual activity is always sinful, no matter the context. Two people of the same sex are not to engage in sexual intimacy of any kind.  Christians are to love all people, even those practicing homosexual behavior. It is tragic when Christians behave in hateful ways towards gays and lesbians. Yet because some Christians have been unloving towards gays and lesbians does not mean the church should love them by affirming their sexual behavior. Jesus never said sin is okay. Biblical love means telling those engaging in sexual immorality the truth, even if it's difficult to say and hear. 

To be inclusive of gay and lesbian people in a way that is modeled after Jesus, the church's inclusiveness cannot be absolute. The church cannot say to gays and lesbians, "Come and be a part of the church and you'll be affirmed in your sexual choices. You can be in leadership. Your sexual activity isn't a problem." That would be inconsistent with the actual inclusiveness of Jesus. 

To be like Jesus, the church as biblically revealed must reach out in love to all broken and sinful people, welcoming all into the church. Is a gay man welcome to worship in the church? Yes! Will the church affirm his sexual behavior? No! Will the church encourage a lesbian woman to seek God's will for her entire life, including her sexuality? Yes! Will we condemn her and single her out in her sin? No! Will the church call a gay man or lesbian woman to repent and experience God's forgiveness? Yes! Will the church elect him or her to church office, if he or she continues to practice homosexual behavior? No! Will they be free to bring their lovers to church with them? Yes! Will they be free to be physically expressive at church, as a husband and wife would be in a public place? No! Will the church pray for them and seek to love then as Christ has loved us? Yes! Will we bless their union in some kind of civil or marriage ceremony? No!

Many gays and lesbians will say that one cannot love them without affirming their homosexual behavior. This is not true! Jesus loved sinners, yet still called them to repent of their sin. The church should follow Jesus. This means the church should include gays and lesbians in their outreach. It does not mean the church should include gays and lesbians by affirming their sexual choices. Some gays and lesbians, and their advocates, would object that homosexual behavior isn't wrong. That's the ultimate issue. If the biblically revealed church believed homosexual behavior was right, then they would have an altogether different position. However, the church of God as revealed in the Scriptures has decided to stand on the authority of God's Word.  

This is an explanation of how Christians who believe homosexual behavior is wrong can be inclusive of gays and lesbians in the church. Having done this, the church's zeal to exclude gay and lesbian people in many churches has outstripped their commitment to Christian love. Many practice a double standard, where homosexual sin is counted worse than heterosexual sin - the one unforgiveable, the other overlooked. And, of course, that isn't the truth. 

May all in the church seek to love as Jesus loved, offering His grace and mercy to all people, including gays and lesbians. This way is not only right but is also possible. God help us to do the truth as it is in Jesus. 

When the Cost of Following Jesus Seems Too Much

HAVING TO "HATE" OUR FAMILY?

Whoever doesn't hate father, mother, spouse, children, sister, brother, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26) Is our Lord saying we must hate our families in order to follow Him?  That's a question we almost can't bear to ask ourselves. Surely the Gospel writer must have gotten it wrong!  Right?

But if that's so, then so did Matthew. There Jesus says, "Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." (Matthew 10:37) And again Matthew says, "Do not thank that I have come to bring peace to the earth; but a sword ... And one's enemies will be members of one's own household." (Matthew 10:35-36) 

There's no way around it! Jesus said these terrible words. We would like, instead, to hear words of comfort from our Savior. But we also need to hear His uncomfortable words. 

There are lots of things that divide our families. Disagreements about money and various lifestyles break people apart. There isn't anyone who doesn't have some dispute like that lurking in their family somewhere. There's so much that divides families -- who needs Jesus adding to the pain?

And this is certainly painful stuff! Family hurt is about as painful as it gets. No one know how to hurt each other the way that family members do. Emotion and pain run deep in our families. Acknowledging that is the place to begin to understand these strange words from our Lord. 

Rejection, hurt, dispute, trouble in the family touches anyone of us at such a level it becomes all consuming. Family is such a major thing in our life experience that it becomes enmeshed in the way we see ourselves -- the ways we see life. It's the way reality is for us.

This is something we all know: rejection and desertion by a parent can mark us for life. Intense jealousies between siblings can put a bad mark on a person so that every relationship turns to hate. And the hate produced has a fierceness found nowhere else. Jesus says there's another way, but we can't or won't hear Him. We don't believe that lives have a way out of such family situations. 

So, what do we do? Well, Jesus says that we need to get real! That's the point of the heavy hate language. Jesus uses the device of exaggeration to make us hear Him. He says, "If you don't hate your brother, your sister, your children, your grandchildren, then you can't be My disciple." It's not that we're being required to cultivate hate towards our loved ones. No! We're being told that in the light of following Jesus everything else is less important. 

This is the good news - the gospel!  Nothing, and no one, can compete with the demands of following Jesus. That means what defines us first and foremost is our relationship to Jesus -- NOT our relationships with our family members. Our sister, our brother, our spouse, our children, our grandchildren -- all these relationships are of a second order. Whatever problems, troubles, torments that stem from family relationships are not all, and end all, of who we are as persons. 

Jesus knows about the power of families in our lives. He grew up in a good Jewish family and experienced all the family relationships for Himself. He knows well how easy it is to get so consumed by our family experience that we forget who we are apart from those family experiences. 

Yes! I am a son, a grandson, a nephew, a husband, a stepfather, an uncle and grandfather. All of those roles have deeply shaped who I am. But I am not defined by those roles. I am first of all a child of God! That's my primary identity. All other identities grow out of that one relationship with my heavenly Father - a child of God. True peace and absolute security are found in that identity: a child of God. 

When I know that with my head and my heart, then all that life brings me - bad as well as good - is put in a different place. No longer do other things determine who I am, or what I may do, or how I feel about living. All of that is less important in the light of God, who loves me unconditionally, absolutely, and forever. NOTHING can take that away from me. That is who I am! God's faithfulness to me changes everything. 

When we know Whose we are, then we can have confidence in who we are. Whatever our human relationships, we belong to God first and foremost. That's who we are!

You're blessed when you are content with just who you are -- no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves glad owners of everything that can be bought. (Matthew 5:5, MSG)

Suffering and the Way of the Cross

 Suffering and the Way of the Cross*

Why are there so many who fear to take up the cross, which leads to the heavenly kingdom? For those in Christ who hear the word of the Cross and follow it, there is health, life, protection from enemies, heavenly sweetness, strength of mind, joy of spirit, the height of virtue, and perfection of holiness. In fact, there is no health of one's soul, no hope of eternal life, accept in the Cross of Christ. So, why not deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus? He gave everything for us. He went before us, bearing His cross, and died for us upon the cross, that we might also bear our cross and willingly be crucified with Him upon it. For if we are dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we partake of His suffering in this world, we shall also partake of His eternal glory in heaven. 

Everything depends upon the cross and dying to ourselves. There's no other way to life and true inward peace, except daily dying to ourselves and taking up our cross. We can go where we want, seek whatever we want, and we shall find no higher way above, nor safer way below, than the way of the Cross. If we order our lives according to our own will and judgment, we shall always find suffering, either willingly or unwillingly. So shall we always find our cross, feeling either the pain of body or the tribulation of spirit within our soul.

Sometimes we will feel forsaken by God. Sometimes we will be tried by our neighbor. Sometimes we will even be wearisome to ourselves. Still we can't be delivered or eased by any remedy of consolation, but must bear it as long as God wills. For God will have us learn to suffer without consolation and submit ourselves fully to our suffering, so we'll be made more humble. No one understands completely the passion of Christ and His suffering on the way to the Cross. But as we bear our cross, we can begin to know in our hearts something of His suffering for us. The cross is always ready and waits everywhere for us. We cannot flee from it. Wherever we hurry to get away and wherever we end up, we always take ourselves with us. Whether we turn above, turn below, turn without or turn within, we shall find the cross. Our need is for patience in every situation, if we will have inward peace and finally gain the everlasting crown. 

If we willingly bear our cross, it will bear us and will bring us to the end of this life's suffering with Jesus. If we bear it unwillingly, we make a burden for ourselves and greatly increase the load, yet we must bear it still. If we cast away our cross, we shall find another and maybe a heavier one. Do we think we can escape what no one has ever been able to avoid? Which of the saints of God in this world lived without the cross and much tribulation? Not even Jesus, our Lord, lived one hour on this earth without the anguish of His Passion before Him. It behooved Him, He said, to suffer and die on the Cross, rise from the dead, and so enter into His glory. (Luke 24:46) So, why do we seek another way than this royal way, the way of the Holy Cross?

All of Jesus' life was a cross and martyrdom. And yet do we seek rest and joy for ourselves? We are wrong, very wrong, if we seek anything but to suffer tribulations. For this earthly life is full of miseries and crosses everywhere. The more we advance in our spiritual lives, the heavier will be our crosses. For as our love of God increases, so our sorrows increase. Yet we're not without consolation. We find abundant fruit growing within us by bearing our cross. When we willingly submit to it, every burden of tribulation is turned into an assurance of divine comfort. The more our bodies are wasting away by afflictions, the more our spirits are strengthened by inward grace. This is not by our virtues, but only by the grace of God. It is Jesus only who gives us great power and energy through conforming our lives to the Cross of Christ. 

It's not in our nature to bear the cross, to love the cross, to keep our bodies in subjection, to flee many honors, to bear reproaches meekly, to despise self and desire to be despised, to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world. If we only look to ourselves, we will not be able to do any of these things. But if we trust wholly in the Lord, heavenly endurance shall be given us. The world and the flesh shall be subject to our command. Yes, we shall not even fear the devil, if we are armed with faith and signed with the Cross of Christ. 

We must set ourselves, then, like good and faithful servants of Christ, to bravely bear the cross of our Lord, who out of love was crucified for us. Let's prepare ourselves for the bearing of many adversities and troubles in this wretched life, for there is no means of escaping from tribulation and sorrow, except to patiently bear the cross. If we desire to follow Jesus as His disciples, then we must obediently and lovingly drink our Lord's cup of suffering. Leave consolations to God. He will do whatever seems best to Him. For the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory which shall be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18)

When we've come to accept our tribulations as pleasant for Christ's sake, it will be well with our souls. For we will have found paradise on earth. So long as it's hard for us to accept our sufferings, so long as we tend only to escape them, it will not be well with us and tribulations will follow us everywhere. But if we become willing to suffer and die for Christ, it will go better with us and we shall find peace. Even if we should be caught up with Paul into the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), we will not be on that account safe from suffering evil. Jesus said of Paul, "I will show him what great things he must suffer for My Name's sake. (Acts 9:16) It remains, therefore, for us to suffer, if we love Jesus and continually serve Him.

In summary, we ought to lead a life of dying to ourselves. The more we die to ourselves, the more we live towards God. We cannot understand heavenly things without submitting ourselves to bearing our adversities for Christ.  There is nothing more acceptable to God, nor more healthful for us in this world, than to willingly suffering for Christ. Our worthiness as servants of Christ, and our growth in God's grace, aren't found in delights and consolations, but rather in bearing many troubles and adversities.  

If, indeed, there had been anything better and more profitable to our overall health than to suffer, Christ would surely have shown it by His word and example. For the disciples who followed Him during His earthly life, and all who desire to follow Him now, He plainly exhorts to deny themselves and bear their cross, saying, "If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. (Luke 9:23) 

Now that we've thought about these things, this is the conclusion of the whole matter: We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22) 

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*My comments are a summary of Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, "Of the Royal Way of the Holy Cross" (Book 2, Number 12)

Choosing to See Through The Pandemic Pandemonium

As I write this, the world is caught up in the coronavirus pandemic. What to say about it is anybody's question and nobody's answer. So many words, mostly coming out of anxious times of government-mandated social isolation and a reported major spreading of the virus. "The suffering is great!" "There is no end in sight!" And on ... and on! Communications in social media and news reports all say, "It is very hard to ....." There are no words to state what may be known, because what is known is not really known at all. Government, economy, health systems, every thing in this world that people trust is at some level of ineptitude. Everyone, and all things, are caught up in the pandemic. What's left is a longing for a freedom that no one knows how to describe.

This pandemic has brought upon us such a discouraging view of the world we're living in now. It's a view that dominates the news and social media, a picture of all that's wrong with life as we know it. It's dark and depressing! It's how life appears, it turns out, when God is removed from the picture. It's what happens when we choose to live in the shadows of our own "wisdom" and by the selfishness of our own shortsighted agendas. Without God, we deny any ultimate reality. We're left to wallow in our own limited and perverted realities. It's such a discouraging view of life!  And whether we admit it or not, we're all caught up in it to one degree or another.

This destressing picture of pandemic life revolves around a simple plot. We want to be free, but there seems to be no such thing as true freedom. It's really an inescapable paradox. God offers refuge from the burden of pandemic realities by asking us to share His burden. It turns out that true freedom is not the absence of the pandemic, but rather the acceptance of its limitations.  We tend to get this backwards. We work to get all we can out of the situation at hand when, in fact, we are made to give all we can in lieu of it. We consume constantly, when sacrifice is the path to true joy. We find it hard to believe that we're most free when we are yielded to God and share His suffering in this troubled pandemic world. One thing is sure! Without God, things finally have no meaning and nothing can remove the fear and anxieties in our lives. We find the answer to being caught in this pandemic when we end our frantic pursuit of happiness and security and, instead, seek God with all our hearts.

So, what are we to do during these days and months of being caught in the pandemic and quarantined or "sheltered in place?"  We can choose anxiety and fear, or we can live for the moment, enjoy what little we can, and quit looking blankly at the distressing news reports of our "terrible situation." What we have to do is come to terms with life as it really is - scary, fragile, frustrating, and yet yielding flickers of hope. Being alive during the pandemic and believing in God requires being caught in paradox. The two realities are side-by-side, sometimes colliding and sometimes turning away from each other. On the one hand, the world is a mess! The "invisible enemy" is everywhere and nowhere. It seems like there will be no end to it. On the other hand, there's a mystery to the working of God in the world, one, like the virus, we cannot easily see. Unlike the virus, God rules absolutely. But He grants us the freedom to choose, which introduces the possibility of bad choices bringing evil into the picture. Keeping balance in this paradox is the challenge for these trying days.

What we hopefully will learn, through all of this, is that any life we will ever have is a gift. God's favor cannot be earned, but it's possible to receive it. The receiving is called grace. Joy can exist with distress. The gift is being able to look at this pandemic world, see it all, deny nothing, and still look up, trust, and smile with a vibrant hope in God. We're much more than the news of the day. We're made to share in God's life and work, and at the end of our days to rest in God's goodness and grace. Knowing this takes faith, patience and eyes to see through the pandemonium of the pandemic. As we do, we finally come to see that we're not caught in it all, but free of it through faith in the wonderful presence of God.

What's Next, Papa?

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, "What's next, Papa?" (Romans 8:15, MSG)

I was out last week celebrating my daughter-in-law's birthday. She had worked all day and needed a break, especially from cooking for the children. So, my wife and I met her and our three grandchildren at a restaurant. There's always much expectancy while waiting on a meal of Mexican food, getting ready to sit together and eat with those you love.  

While waiting for a table to seat the six of us, five-year-old Mason, came to sit by me. After we greeted and hugged, I began to point out the things to him which were around us in the waiting area - like the flower etched into the wooden bench we were sitting on and it's lack of roots. I then pointed out a potted plant nearby and mentioned that it had roots. Mason responded, "Or it couldn't grow."  I shared how Jesus' love is "planted" into our hearts to make us grow. I then asked what he wanted for Christmas. He showed me how he would operate a WE Game that he was hoping to get. I always have as much to learn from my grandchildren as they do from me.

We finally got seated, ordered and ate our meals. It was such a blessing to spend time with my family. The table conversation was generally about the issues of the day and how things were going at work and school. After the dinner was complete and the bill paid, we got up to leave. As I was putting on my coat, I overheard Mason say to his mom, "I want to go home with grandpa." My heart melted right then and there. It was like God tapping on the shoulder to get my attention. Mason's words rang in my ears the glad joy of little children and their simple faith. I hugged him and said, "We'll be getting together soon at Christmas." His eyes gleamed at the prospect of that day. So did mine!

Today I have been especially happy in the Lord. My love relationship with my heavenly Father is growing and showing. My roots are deep in God's love. The hard times I've been going through lately, in my prayerful search to better understand and accept the importance of the cross of Christ in my life, are beginning to meld into joyful realities. It is all about the resurrection life made possible by Jesus' death on the cross, new life growing up from the roots of God's love in my heart. It's adventurous and expectant! It's a childlike questing for more of Jesus, like my grandson, Mason, asking "What's next, Papa?" 

The best part is knowing that there is more to come, that my heavenly Father has such wonderful things ahead for me. He's really looking forward to my time with Him. He promises He's going to give me the most incredible, unbelievable inheritance, all coming by His grace through my faith in Jesus. And even better - I get to share it with Mason!

When the Dark Days Come

Dark days are hard to bear, but I'm learning that they're an important part of the cross-bearing life. The times of testing continue to come. Just when everything seems on the up-and-up and almost as a surprise, the bottom to falls out and whatever understandings I had experienced of God's goodness and grace go with it. My ego is purged and my heart purified. And it hurts! I'm learning that this is the interior life of a disciple. It is, for me, a hidden and invisible experience. It's the Spirit of Christ calling me from the shallows to the deep. 

I'm thankful the dark days don't happen very often. There have been many who have gone down the dark path before me. I'm not alone!  It's also reassuring to learn that growth-in-faith is not far away. The clouds may cover in darkness, but the sun shines through. Praise God! His mercy never fails and His steadfast love endures forever. 

God is working in the darkness. If I surrender in trust to this truth, I will find Jesus in a new way. It marks the beginning of a deeper life of faith, where joy and peace abound even in the darkness - the deeper life of faith that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The new way of finding Jesus is realizing that God is in the darkness. It is there I go to meet Him. It is there I pray in peace, silent and attentive to Him whose love knows no shadow of change. It is there I celebrate the darkness in the quiet certainty of my maturing faith. 

What happens to me in the dark day is simple. God strips me of my current understandings of His grace, so He can enter more fully into my heart. Maturing faith in Christ comes when I allow God the freedom to work His sovereign will within me, neither letting go of my attained life of prayer in frustration nor giving in to the distractions of the world. Prayer, humility, detachment and faith are beautiful graces, but I can only have them through the purging of God's grace. It's in this purifying process that I'm prepared to more fully receive God's gifts. 

I know, but often forget that the humility of Jesus is most clearly seen in His forgiveness and acceptance of others - even His enemies. In contrast, continuing resentments show that the cross-bearing life is not fully mine yet. The surest sign of union with Christ is my forgiveness and acceptance of others. Without this action on my part the dark day moves into the dark night, resulting in my troubled heart. Forgiveness is the key to everything.* Through my forgiveness the mind of Christ is formed within me and the darkness is prevented from becoming an ego trip. Forgiveness guards me from feeling so spiritually advanced that I look down on my struggling brothers and sisters. It's in humble forgiveness that we have the mind of Christ. 

The final repudiation of the ego is the surrender of our need for vindication, the handing over of the kingdom of self to the Father, and the forgiving in our heart of others. When we do this faithfully, we're not being afraid of the dark, but celebrating the light that shines though it and give us all life in Christ.
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* From The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning

Thinking About the Cross-Bearing Life

Jesus says that to be His disciple, we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. That means we accept our own wounds and limitations as being nailed to the cross of Christ and fully surrendered to Him. Jesus completely takes on Himself all our pain and suffering. So, we completely identify our lives with Jesus - what He stands for and what He wants to accomplish through us. Our human frailties, which have caused us many painful experiences, we now fully accept and surrender to Christ. He has experienced our pain and suffering and made it His pain and suffering. Our lives are made fully complete through faith in Jesus - and in Him alone. 

In identifying with the crucified Christ, we enter into the work that He finished on the cross for us - His taking upon Himself all our sins and transgressions. It was all included in His cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsakened me?" (Mt 27:46) This was the moment of our redemption. His cry upon the Cross was our cry of alienation from God. And now, by completely surrendering to Him, our cry is taken up into His cry and transformed by His resurrection. Rather than condemning ourselves for our weaknesses and making self-conscious efforts to try to be better, we surrender ourselves completely to the crucified Christ who shed His blood on the cross for us. There is no way of healing from our pain and suffering except through the love of Jesus that forgives seventy times seven and keeps no score of wrongdoings. 

The unmistakable sign of Christian disciples who have actually experienced the forgiveness of Jesus is the Spirit-given capacity to forgive their enemies. Jesus says, "Love your enemies and do good, then you will have great reward and be a child of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and to the selfish." (Lk 6:35) Jesus, the crucified Christ, is not only an example to the people of God. He is the living power and wisdom of God who empowers them to reach out hands of healing to those who have hurt them. As we more clearly hear Him pray for His murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34), He will turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. At the foot of the cross of Jesus we are all forgiven enemies of God, who are empowered by His love to extend forgiveness to others. 

In the agony of the cross Jesus said: "I know every moment of the sin, selfishness, dishonesty and degraded love that has disfigured your life. Yet I do not judge you unworthy of compassion, forgiveness and salvation. Now be like that with others. Judge no one." It's only when we claim with heartfelt conviction the love of the crucified Christ and risen Lord, that we can overcome all fear of judgement. As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, as if we are what we have, as if we are what other people think of us, we will remain filled with judgments, evaluations and condemnations. We will continue to feel the need to "put people in their place." To the extent that we embrace the truth that our core identity is not rooted in our successes nor our popularity but in the passionate, pursuing, "reckless" love of God embodied in His crucified Son - to that degree we let go of our need to judge others. We become free from the need to judge others by claiming for ourselves this foundational truth: "I am a child of God." We are loved by our heavenly Father. This is what Jesus means when He says, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged." (Mt 7:1) John says it this way, "In love there is no room for fear." (1 Jn 4:18)

The only true wisdom we have is our own experience of the love of the crucified Christ. It's our awareness that nothing - not the negative judgments of others, not our wrongful perception of ourselves, not our scandalous past, nor our fear, guilt, and self-loathing, not even death - can separate us from the love God made visible to us on the cross of Calvary. This awareness is where our true wisdom resides. There is no substitute for the gospel. It is the power and wisdom of the crucified Christ. When we are dying, we shouldn't want some trendy words given by someone for our comfort. Instead, we should want a priestly minister of God. We should want one who has struggled with his or her faith and still clings to Jesus. We should want somebody who has looked long and lovingly at the crucified Christ and experienced the healing only found in our risen Savior and Lord. 

It's the suffering Christ who "loved us and gave Himself up for us" (Eph 5:2) on the cross. The love of Jesus Christ on the cross is the divine reality. Our true lives are utterly incomprehensible except in terms of Jesus' love. Would we have remained with Mary Magdalene and John at the foot of the Cross as Jesus was murdered in the most brutal and dehumanizing way? And if we would've spoken to Mary and John of Christian life, ministry, prayer or discipleship, we would've surely spoken of Jesus nailed to the cross and now risen in glory - or not at all. We wouldn't have burdened them with our theological insights, or bored them with our ministerial successes or our gifts or anything else. We would be certain that they would've had only one question for us: Do you know Jesus? 

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* As a faithful Protestant, I'm coming to terms with Brennan Manning's The Signature of Jesus. I believe that many of Jesus' disciples don't have a clear understanding of the crucified Christ. I'm  thankful for clarifications made by Robin Riggs in The Lifestyle of the Cross and Rankin Wilbourne in The Cross Before Me.

Concentrating on the Cross of Christ

Oswald Chambers writes about knowing the "energy of God." He says that to know this energy we have to "brood on the tragedy of God" - the tragedy of Calvary and the meaning of Redemption.*  Instead, we choose to focus our preaching and witnessing interests on the spiritual trappings of the faith. How to live the Christian life is important, but it's not what is central to our faith. The central focus of our faith is the Cross of Jesus. When we concentrate on the results of our faith in Jesus' Cross, we lose the energy of God in our lives - the resurrection life of Jesus. We lose the power of God when we don't concentrate on the Cross. Chambers goes on to say that if we pay attention to the objective Source, the Cross of the crucified Christ, then the subjective results of our faith in Jesus' Cross will be realized in our daily lives. 

The effects of the Cross are salvation, sanctification, healing, wholeness of life, etc. But we are not to focus on any of these. These are not where the energy of our faith comes from. We are to focus upon and witness to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2-5) The power of God's love is only released in our lives by focusing on the Cross. When we proclaim the love of God, revealed most clearly by His death upon the Cross, the Holy Spirit will bring His desired results.  We're to concentrate our preaching/teaching on the Cross of Christ. And those who hear, though they may appear to not be paying any attention, will never be the same again. The Spirit of God will do His work in them, drawing them closer to God through the redemptive work of Christ crucified. 

If we talk our own talk, it's of no more importance to those who hear us than their talk is to us.  But if we talk the truth of God - the Cross of Jesus - the results will be God's will. We have to concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy - the Cross. If we keep in contact with that center, where all the power lies, the energy of God will be let loose for all to see and hear. Then God will save and transform lives, and all the effects of saving faith in Jesus will be evident - but only through Christ and Him crucified. 

In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings the concentration is often put not on the Cross of Christ, but on the effects of believing in the crucified Christ. Such churches become weak and feeble. The main reason for the feebleness is lack of focus upon the source of spiritual energy - the tragedy of God upon the Cross. The biblical focus is on the Cross of Christ and the redemptive power of God's love in Christ crucified. 

Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? 

Would He devote that sacred head For such a one as I?

Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut His glories in,

When Christ, the mighty Maker, died For man the creature's sin.

But drops of grief can never repay The debt of love I owe:

Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'Tis all that I can do!

At the Cross, at the Cross, Where I first saw the light, 

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight, 

And now I am happy all the day!+

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* In his devotional book My Utmost for His Highest, "The Concentration of Spiritual Energy"
+ Hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), "At the Cross"